Buddy

This is one of the best romantic comedies I've seen in a long time. Not only does it bring some originality to the genre, the characters are explored in some depth and the acting is up to anyone's standards.

Our protagonist loses his girlfriend, has a brief fling with a roommate and then....well, that's where the originality starts. The cast of characters is an offbeat crew of sign painters, slackers, neurotic web designers and environmental activists, all of them looking to make the world a better place in the midst of their love affairs and financial woes.

This is a great date movie; it raises some issues that are worth discussing in the car on the way home; you may even get away with letting your hand stray off the gearshift to your date's thigh.

I've seen other Norwegian movies and enjoyed them quite a bit, the most notable being Svidd Neger. There is a vein of sly humor running through these movies that gives them the little extra they needed to stand out in a world of generic Hollywood romances.

Buddy (2003)

A quirky low budget film with a strain of realism holding its absurdity together. There are some implausible twists of plot, and a general feeling that it could have been both more poignant and more tightly edited. But it is most of all very sweet, and because of that it's touching and a nice film, something to watch with expectations in check.

The key here is really the straight forward storytelling style, the ordinary camera-work, the feeling that contemporary Norway looks and feels a bit like this. There is a sadness to a lot of it that seems forced and yet is moving. The romantic encounters are believable and just wrong and awkward enough to remind us of what it was like to be 20-something and completely tossed around in relationships.

In fact, the best of this movie--two or three of the leading actors, for starters--is so good and natural you only wish it had the rest of its act in order. But then, if you make it to the end, you'll either smile or cry because you'll be a bit attached to the actors by then. Fun.

An absolutely awesome movie, Buddy takes the audience into the lives of three guys in a flat who end up on television with convoluted consequences. Their lives will never be the same, and only the discovery of true loyalty and redemptive friendship can make the situation and experiences into something positive. The transformation is quite moving and the characters seem very real, everyday people. Equally interesting, the film crosses documentary with cinema story to interface and comment on "reality TV." Kudos.

In spite of the seeming capitulation to Hollywood-style romance and happy endings - very uncharacteristic of Norwegian films - this is an outstanding story about status, using people, allegiance to success and stardom vs. allegiance to caring for human beings, especially friends. "Buddy" goes through somewhat annoying yo-yo relationships that need more definition and less reliance on fickle happenstance. The choices are not black and white, and the characters struggle in them. The topical relevance (to 'reality' TV) is especially poignant. In spite of the over-emphasis on finding romance and happiness in loyalty and responsibility, I give it 9/10. One of the most provocative, "real" yet uplifting European films of the year. Worth watching multiple times.

Its not every day you see a movie that really gets under your skin! As said before , this movie is so charming with its simplicty! A must-see for everyone with an intressed in real life, and not only the 007 world. Enjoy!

Warm, humorous, boisterous, sensitive, naive and yes, maybe a little cliched, Buddy is a thoroughly enjoyable and fun film. I would highly recommend it.

If I'm honest, it wasn't a million miles from being yet another 'quirky' American teen feel-good film (American pie meets Jackass with a Graduate ending)... but, it would take a very cold and cynical heart not to warm to its eager and honest portrayal of wide eyed and bushy tailed Nowegian youth.

Despite some of the clumsy and obvious manipulations, it's got its heart in the right place... and if that's good enough for Stig, that's good enough for me.